Adrian to consider expanding discrimination protections

Sunday

Feb 23, 2014 at 2:00 PM

By John MulcahyDaily Telegram Staff Writer

The Adrian City Commission will consider amending the city’s housing discrimination ordinance to add several classes of protected groups and extend the activities to which those protections are applied.

The amended ordinance would add protection from discrimination based on height, weight, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and AIDS or HIV status.

The existing ordinance prohibits housing discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, family status and marital status.

The amended ordinance also would extend the protections to public accommodations and employment as well as housing.

The amended ordinance will be introduced at the city commission’s meeting March 3, acting city administrator Shane Horn said. Ordinance changes typically are introduced at one city commission meeting and voted on at the next.

“I think it is important to realize that diversity is one of Adrian's strengths, and we should be protecting and promoting that diversity,” commissioner Andrew Munson, who initiated the amendment effort, said in an email. “The only way to grow is to grow together.”

As well, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and allies “reached out to me in October about this issue,” Munson said in his email.

Thirty other cities in Michigan have passed similar laws, Munson said.